Method for forming scalloped edge trimming of thermoplastic fabric



March l, 1966 H. A. G. ADAMS METHOD FOR FORMING SCALLOPED EDGE TRIMMING OF THERMOPLASTIC FABRIC Filed Jan. 15, 1962 United States Patent O 3,238,282 METHOD FOR FORMING SCALLOPED EDGE TRIMMING F THERMOPLASTIC FABRIC Herbert Alfred George Adams, Letchworth, England, assignor to Kayser Bondor Limited Filed Jan. 15, 1962, Ser. No. 166,428 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Jan. 20, 1961, 2,454/61 1 Claim. (Cl. 264-159) This invention is for improvements in or relating to the production of textile articles and is concerned with textile trimming formed by shaping textile material.

Heretofore, to produce trimming with, for example, a scalloped edge, it has been necessary to resort to a comparatively complicated and lengthy method involving the use of zig-zag and plain stitch sewing machines in one operation, and in a subsequent operation cutting the material to the required shape.

In other examples where trimming is of pleated form, a considerable length of material is required to produce a comparatively short length of the trimming.

An object of the invention is to provide for the production of textile trimming in improved manner.

The invention provides the production of textile trimming formed by shaping material which is capable of being stretched and set by heating and cooling, characterized by the steps of presenting the material to a treating station, and there applying a repetitive-pattern-shaped element to the material to stretch portions of it into required repetitive-pattern-shape while subjecting the material to heat treatment, followed by cool-ing, suitable for setting the material with the repetitive pattern stretched in it. Conveniently, in a continuous process, the material in strip form is fed intermittently though the treating station, the repetitive pattern shaped element is intermittently applied to the strip at the treating station, and, also a the treating station, the strip passes rst through a heating zone and then through a cooling zone. The strip may continue to be fed between cutters for cutting off surplus material.

One method is characte-rized by guiding the strip into circular sectioned tubular form with projecting marginal edges overlapping, stitching these edges together, gradually changing the shape to somewhat lattened tube shape in which the strip passes about a stretcher frame having repetitive-pattern-shaped outer edges, intermittently expanding the stretcher frame as the flat tubular strip passes through the heating and cooling zones, and passing the tlat tubular strip, with repetitive-pattern-shaped edges formed by the stretcher frame, to cutters and thereby cutting off a surplus middle portion of the flat tubular strip including the stitched together marginal edges.

Other methods are characterized by passing the strip in at strip form through the treating station whereat the repetitive pattern is formed by the intermittent application of repetitive pattern shaped bars on opposite faces of the strip. The strip may be maintained taut widthwise by beading marginal edges over a core and stitching along folded over edges, and clasping the beaded edges by clasp which are biassed away from each other.

Particularly eifective repetitive patterns which may be formed are scallops each of which by virtue of the stretching of the fabric has a fan-shape effect; or corrugations which may be of parallel or tapered form and may be disposed along either an edge land/ or a middle part of the strip. These corrugated. patterns can be frill-like either in straight row or scallop-like formation so as to have a fan-like frill eiiect. A particular advantage of strip formed with these frill-like patterns is that it does not necessitate the strip to start with being of any greater length than that of the nal trimming.

ICC

The invention also provides vapparatus for Iproducing textile trimmings in which there are means for feeding the strip intermittently through a treating station, a repetit1ve pattern shaped stretcher element associated with heating and cooling chambers a the treating station, and means for operating the stretcher element with a stretching action on the strip in timed relation with the intermittent feed of the strip.

Where the strip is required to be of tubular form, there are suitable guide means for guiding the strip into that form, a sewing head operable for stitching the edges together, and cutter means for cutting oi the surplus material.

The above and Other features of the invention set out in the appended claim are incorporated in the construction which will now be described, Vas a specific embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is -a general perspective view of relevant parts of apparatus for producing textile trimming according to the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a 4detail cross sectional view at location A of tubular textile material.

FIGURE 3 is a detail cross sectional view of the tubular textile material at position B.

FIGURE 4 is a detail perspective view of the textile material as position C.

FIGURE 5 is a detail perspective View of heating and cooling means between the locations B and C.

Referring to FIGURE 1 the apparatus shown comprises a suitable support 1 on the right hand end of which there is a roll supply 2 of textile strip material, in this instance knitted fabric made of thermoplastic yarn such as nylon, mounted on brackets 3, 4.

The strip travels through a treating station at the location B by means of a pair of short hanged nip rollers 5, 6 on brackets 7, 8, a pair of longer nip rollers 9, 10 on brackets 11, 12, and a pair of cutter nip rollers 13, 14 on brackets 15, 16, all intermittently driven through coupling gears 5a, 6a, 9a, 10a, 13a, 14a Iand one-way acting roller clutches 17, 18, 19 (commonly known as Spragg clutches) connected by oper-ating arms 20, 21, 22 to a common operating rod 23 which is pivoted to a cam follower lever 24, the latter being pivotally mounted at 25 on the support 1 and having a cam follower 26 operating in a cam track 27 in a disc cam 28.

In its passage to the rollers 5, 6 the strip S travels through a guide 29 attached to brackets 30, 31 by a strap 29a and which is shaped to guide the strip S from its llat form into tubular form with its marginal edges S1, S2 projecting downwardly and overlapping as indicated in FIGURE 2.

From the guide 29 (FIGURE l) the strip S passes a sewing head 32 disposed on a base bracket 33 for its needle 34 to operate horizontally and transversely of the strips S through the marginal edges S1, S2 (FIGURE 2) to stitch the latter together by stitching ST.

There is also provided a mandrel tube 36 mounted in a strap 37 on the brackets 30, 31 and extending between the rollers 5, 6 as provided for by their flanged shape, and this mandrel forms a core guide for the strip as it is formed to the tube shape, the tube thereafter extending between the rollers 5, 6.

At the location B to C of the treating station, their is a stretcher frame 38, and between the frame and the rollers 5, 6, there is a ish tail tube guide 39 which somewhat attens the tube and widens it as indicated in FIG- URE 3 to lead it onto the stretcher frame.

The stretcher frame 38 is connected at a pivot 38a to an operating rod 40 which extends through said lish tail guide 39 and through the mandrel tube 36 to a disc cam 41 whereat a cam follower 42 on the rod 40 operates in a cam track 43 in the disc cam 41.

More specically the connection 88a is of a central bar 44 of the stretcher frame 38 to which is pivotally connected spaced pairs of toggle links 4S, 46-45c, 46c, the latter being in turn pivotally connected to side bars 47, 48 of the frame. The central bar 44 is suported by extending in its position within the fabric tube through annular grooves 9b, 10b in the rollers 9, 10.

The side bars 47, 48 of the stretcher frame 38 have their outer edges 47a, 48a shaped in repetitive pattern like manner; in this instance the edges are scalloped.

The cutter rollers 13, 14 are respectively provided with spaced cutter discs 13b, 13r,` and annular grooves 14h, 14C, the roller 13 being formed in sections secured together by screw means 13d.

At the location B to C of the treating station there is a heating zone H and a cooling zone CO. These are provided by a jacket 49, FIGURE 5, embodying heating elements 50 to form a heating chamber and a jacket 51 embodying cooling elements 52 to form a cooling chamber. The jackets are initially formed in sections for ease of iitting in position about the strip and stretcher frame.

In use of the apparatus the cams 28, 41 are driven by a motor 53 driving the cam spindle 54 through a suitable gear box 55. The cam 28 is suitably shaped for the strip to be intermittently advanced say about 4" at a time with a stationary period between successive advances. The cam 41 is suitably shaped in relation to the cam 28 that at each period when the strip is stationary, the cam 41 pulls on the rod 40 and through the links 45-46c moves the side bars 47, 48 a short distance further apart, lengthwise movement of the sides 47, 48 being limited by suitable pin and slot connections say to the fish plate guide. The effect of this is that the flattened tubular strip is stretched widthwise in opposite directions such that the marginal edge folds of the attened tubular strip are stretched to conform to the scallop shape of the edges 47a, 48a of the stretcher side bars 47, 48. The stretching occurs within the heating chamber at H.

The cam 41 next pushes the rod 40 for return of the stretcher side bars 47, 48 to their original distance apart followed by the cam 28 advancing the strip a further 4" and so on in repeat.

It will be understood that the stretching of the marginal edge folds of the attened tubular fabric is consequently effected progressively along the strip, with repetitive stretching operations widthwise of the strip while it passes first through the heating chamber at H and then through the cooling chamber at CO so that the scallops become set in the strip in well delined manner as indicated at S3,

4 S4 in FIGURES l and 4. Specically each scallop can be of fan-like form by virtue of the stretching which re-arranges the courses and wales in patterned manner.

As the liattened tubular strip with its scalloped edges passes between the cutter rollers 13, 14, the cutters 13b, 13e cut away a middle part of the strip M (FIGURES l and 4) which includes the stitched-together marginal edges S1, S2.

Each remaining side portion of the strip is a folded trimming with the marginal edge fold scalloped by stretching as described.

A particular advantage of the method as thus far described of forming trimming is that it is acomplish'ed comparatively simply in a continuous operation, and the particular shape of the marginal edges of the strip can be readily modified to suit any requirements simply by interchange of stretcher frames having their edges differently shaped to suit the requirements.

It is also possible to produce pattern effects in the strip other than by the stretching of the strip being widthwise.

What I claim is:

A method of forming scalloped edge trimming which consists in providing a length of thermoplastic fabric tube, heating the tube to render it susceptible to permanent shaping, repeat scallop-pattern stretching the tube positively in opposite outward directions widthwise of the tube, cooling the tube to set it with the repeat scallop patterns formed in opposite side edges of the tube, and cutting away a middle portion of the tube.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,904,268 4/1933 Bronson 18-19 2,058,334 10/1936 Mason 156-585 XR 2,240,274 4/ 1941 Wade 156-229 XR 2,414,177 1/1947 Smith 264-286 2,502,772 4/1950 Winstead 264-286 2,592,463 4/19152 Phillips 112-122 2,631,294 3/1953 Seaman 2-278 2,668,324 2/1954 Johnson 18-14 2,694,372 11/ 1954 Hadfield 1122 2,730,724 1/ 1956 Gordon 2-278 2,783,175 2/1957 Smith et al 26-69 2,831,215 4/1958 Piemont 264-286 2,919,484 1/1960 Parker et al 26-69 2,958,148 11/1960 Sylvester et al 264-288 2,982,238 5/1961 Fromm 11242 ALEXANDER H. BRODMERKEL, Primary Examiner.

THOMAS J. HERBERT, JR., RUSSELL C. MADER,

ROBERT F. WHITE, Examiners. 

